Exporting surfaces from 3ds max
leo_bear
Posts: 44
The situation is: I am using someone else's products created in 3ds max. With textures files and a max file. I successfully exported the model as obj file from 3ds max, but in daz studio the obj file only have one surface. I couldn't apply all the diffuse texture files come with the 3d model. What should I do in this situation, if I want to apply the texture file that came with the model?
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I just happened to have a similar situation recently.
Import the .obj into D/S. Go to geometry editor tool, and on the tool pane, see if there are listed what would be the names for the materials but in the area called "groups."
If yes, then begins the journey of selecting each group [in the viewport] and assigning it to a new material. Eventually that wire mat surface will become 0 and it can then be deleted [right click option on the tool panel].
Once all the surfaces have been made, then on the tool panel, make a new group. [one group for each section or whatever you want, one piece is okay too] Depends what the model is. Mine was for 3 trees. So I made 3 groups. Then in the viewport I selected one complete tree at a time and switched it over to the new group made for it. When all the old groups become "0" then they too can be deleted/removed via the tool pane.
Then on the Surfaces Tab [switch back to the normal pointer tool or surfaces tool] select the appropriate fields to apply the existing textures to. Hopefully they were all named the same as the material zones so it's relatively painless.
When finished, remember to SAVE the new prop file. If this is something you want to rig, it can be rigged later. However also export out a new .obj file being sure to 'write surfaces' and 'write groups' so you don't have to do this all over again.
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If you have 3DMax, seems to me that it should be able to write a proper .mtl file when exporting .obj files, so there must be a setting somewhere to check. The .obj I acquired had for some reason, all the materials written inside the .obj file instead of the .mtl file.
material type in max will have a bearing on what gets exported, if it's a Vray material for example then all the materials get merged into one material called 'wire'...I just use the default 3dsmax scanline material for setting up models for export to Daz studio, that way all materials get exported as you would expect
Thank you for explaining this. I'll add it to my notes.
So this material type for Vray, is this a simple switch over to the default scanline material setting, OR does it mean that the entire material zones would have to be remade?
hopefully these images can explain..I think the new default material in 3dsmax is the 'physical material', that as well as a vray material will condense all material to one on export to Daz Studio,
the example in the first image is a cube with two materials,when exported to DS you can see the two materials become one,and is renamed 'wire....'
second image shows how to change material type to the legacy default scanline material,
Yes, thank you very much :-)
And for those who have the wire material and don't have 3DMax, in D/S, IF the materials happened to have been written into the .obj file as they were for the file shown here, then using the Geometry Editor tools one can remake the surfaces, etc.
n.b. the reason for culling down the number of groups is more important if one has any intentions to rig the model(s). Every Face Group will become a Bone.
Also, just in case anybody recognizes where this model came from, do be aware that of the hundreds of trees sold, so far I've only found 2 such files - and they were from the older sections. 99% loaded just fine in D/S which is pretty decent.
Thanks both of you Catherine and Stonemason, very helpful to my case!